Who benefits from dividing Serbian votes?

Before the Serbian people in Kosovo and Metohija in the coming days is an important task—to preserve our existence and survival in our ancestral homes in the elections on February 9. Today in Kosovo and Metohija, everything that is Serbian is endangered due to the unreasonable policies of the authorities in Pristina, but a victory for the Serbian people embodied in the Serb List will be the best response and defeat of such anti-Serbian policies represented by Albin Kurti and his followers.

Therefore, every one of our people in Kosovo and Metohija knows very well the answer to the question—who benefits from dividing Serbian votes? Only Kurti! What hurts Kurti the most? A united and economically strengthened Serbian people, a strong Serb List! Whom did Kurti want to expel and ban—the Serbian people and our Serb List. Therefore, it is important that all of Serbian name and surname, all who have Serbia in their heart, gather around the only banner of the Serb List, which alone has the support of official Belgrade and our President Aleksandar Vucic.

Additionally, on that day in the elections, we are defending everything that we have built over the past decade in our southern province, united and jointly—our state Serbia, our Serbian people, and our Serb List. Let's go in order.

Over the last 10 years, with the help of the state of Serbia and the Office for Kosovo and Metohija for the housing needs of our population in Kosovo and Metohija, 5,578 housing units have been built, fundamentally reconstructed, and adapted. A total of 683,000,000 dinars have been invested in equipping health institutions over the past 10 years, and just in the last four years, more than 1,500 people in healthcare in Kosovo and Metohija have gotten jobs.

Additionally, we have supported with almost 3.5 billion dinars the development of agriculture and economy in our southern province. We have placed a special emphasis on the financial assistance package for our people, so from February, 5,000 of the most socially vulnerable Serbs who are unemployed will receive 20,000 dinars from the state of Serbia, every child of ours from kindergarten, primary, and secondary school is already receiving a 5,000 dinar monthly snack supplement, and we have employed in the last two years 1,100 of our people in Kosovo and Metohija in local government services.

In the upcoming period, a new package of various types of financial assistance, new jobs, investments in all sectors from healthcare, education, agriculture... is planned. And this is not a matter of campaign but of responsible policy of the state of Serbia and our Serb List in response to all the challenges we face and a way to strengthen our foundations and bastion in these areas.

Please forgive this enumerative listing of figures, all these are tangible and measurable results of our support for the Serbian people in Kosovo and Metohija. That is why it is important that Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija in as large numbers as possible turn out on February 9 for the upcoming elections in Kosovo and Metohija and show that we are strongest when it is most needed, that we are not scared and that we are not going anywhere from our doorstep, although we are an obstacle and a thorn in the shoe to many.

I do not think it is a coincidence that at this very moment we are facing organized efforts to politically destabilize our country, because Serbia, after many years, is starting to have international circumstances turn in its favor. There are both in Serbia and outside those who, at the mere hint of a chance that we come into a situation to resolve important state and national issues in a favorable way for us, have activated all known and already seen means of destabilizing our society, because it is clear that many do not have an interest in our people seizing the historical opportunities that present themselves. This process has been underway in Kosovo and Metohija as well, only it was activated much earlier, and its manifestations have been far more drastic and brutal, because opponents of Serbian state and national interests had Albin Kurti as their contractor.

And it is no coincidence that Kurti is providing the most enthusiastic support for student and opposition protests in central Serbia. From his coming to the head of the temporary self-government institutions in Pristina, everything has been done to weaken the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija so much that they are left without a trace of strength and political influence that would allow them to fight for the realization of their interests when international circumstances would allow it.

However, Kurti has failed to do this dirty job, because the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija are tougher and more resilient than the architects of violence against our people expected. The situation in international politics is changing fundamentally these days, and if there ever was a moment when it is crucially important for the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija to speak with a unified voice, it is this moment. The Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija can afford to disagree about finesses, and even about some important political issues, but they must be united in the desire to seize the opportunities that may be offered to us as a state and people. If anyone knows the value of unity, it is the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija.

Thus, before us is not just another election process in Kosovo and Metohija, nor just another referential opportunity, but a chance to decide whether there will be any of us as a people there at all. Let no one harbor illusions that the hard times for our people are over, because the most loyal and most diligent implementers of the Greater Albanian idea will not give up on the intention to force the Serbian people to leave their ethnic space. The darkness is thickest before the dawn, and it is in that darkness that the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija have been forced to live in the last few years. But, just like in the song, dawn breaks over Kosovo, and a new day will dawn, I am convinced, for the entire Serbian nation—if we are wise enough and united. The Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija should be an example of unity in the upcoming elections and a model for the rest of the Serbian people. It is important that the Serb List, which enjoys the support of the Republic of Serbia, wins all 10 seats in the parliament of the temporary self-governing institutions in Pristina, because only that would be a clear message that the enemies of Serbdom cannot divide and defeat us.

An authored text by the director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Petar Petkovic, for Politika.